Talk:The Traveller/@comment-75.132.224.109-20180217165751
Having binge watched the show, and having enjoyed it immensly, I wanted to contribute what my understanding of the Traveler/timeline is. :SPOILERS FOLLOW: My understanding is the Traveler is no one else we know from the series (ie an older version of the recurring/main characters). The original timeline he comes from is by far the most distant/advanced and seemingly follows the idealic future timeline created at the end of the show that we see when Keira goes back to 2077. His original mission as we are told through the Freelancers was to chronicle time (without changing it) and assumedly return with that knowledge so his people in the future could maintain, repair, and prevent any major disruptions of their "original" timeline. This initial mission had to be slightly altered when he found his future ceased to be, without knowing what he did (or in my opinion hadn't done yet) to create his future. Subsequently he decided to travel further back in time, creating the freelancers to try and maintain/repair/correct time from the past instead of the future. Initially I thought this premise was a plothole. How could a future society even with first hand knowledge of the past prevent changes to the timeline if those changes render them majorly changed/destroyed? Then I thought about the "lifeboat" that Kiera is put into by the freelancers when their timeline is being destroyed. I believe the lifeboat and the technology behind it are from the Travelers origin time, that the technology within him can serve him the same way besides allowing actual timetravel, and is how the future society intended to perserve their timeline through changes. The lifeboat seems to be a timebubble that protects anyone within it from being destroyed or changed during a timeline collapse. Kiera when saved by the lifeboat never actually travels through time or even from the place where she is placed in it, it simply protects her when the timeline she is originally sent back too is destroyed and allows her to proceed with her knowledge into the newly created timeline to try and fix what changed (. Assumedly the future society the Traveler is from has this same capability, but needed the Traveler to return with a first hand relatively unchanged blueprint of their history to know when to travel back too and fix any law breaking incursions that change what should be their present. They probably have a high tech department of similar Jesus like police waiting to go back and put the fix in when needed. Problem is the Traveler never got back to them with the blueprint, so they are helpless until he does in their little future time bubble hanging on a no longer existant branch of the time tree. You could assume the Traveler went back far enough to become Jesus given his powers, but thats a debate for another time. ;) My best guess about what changed the Travelers future is based on the very few things he does to try to recreate it. He obviously see's/feels that the time Kiera travels too with young Alec is the time changes occured and need corrected. He also feels Kiera is instrumental in this. I believe its his influence on Kristine that encourages her to resurrect Chen and enlist Kiera. His resurrection/influence on Chen is used to manuever some of the characters/groups and to achieve his freedom from the Freelancers (they do seem to have taken on too much cultish form in regards to him and he did somehow become their prisoner, I assume his cell prevented his use of timetravel). It is also my assumption besides setting "original" Keira loose in this time to fix things, he figured out what he needed to do to create his future. Using his powers to send young Alec into a future time with Alec's future self (from Kiera's dark 2077) and encourage him to go through with his timetravel plan with liber8 and also subsequently drag Kiera into it by mentioning her to his future self (who seemed not to have her as part of his original plan). By doing so the first actual timetravel changes happen and the sequence of events leading to his future occur (after the Kellog dark future is averted by getting rid of Kellog).